A known electrical connector assembly 100 is shown in FIG. 7 and disclosed in JP 2004-39600 A. The electrical connector assembly 100 includes a plug 110 and a plug receptacle 130 that connect with each other. The plug 110 connects to a power cord 120, and the plug receptacle 130 mounts to a vessel body 140 of an electric pot or the like.
In this case, the plug 110 includes an insulating plug body 111, and a pair of plate springs 114 that are installed inside of the plug body 111.
A pair of plate spring receiving cavities 112 open in the front (bottom in FIG. 7) is provided in the plug body 111. In addition, a pair of magnet holders 113 is provided on left and right outer sides of the plate spring receiving cavities 112 in the plug body 111. A magnet 116 and a magnet 117 are integrally joined to the outer surface of the magnetic 116 and positioned in each of the magnet holders 113.
Moreover, the plate springs 114 are each formed of a metal that is resiliently deformable in the front-and-back direction. A core wire 121 of the power cord 120 is connected to each back end of the respective plate springs 114, and a contact portion 115 is provided on each front end of the respective plate springs 114.
Furthermore, the plug receptacle 130 with which the plug is mated includes an insulating plug receptacle body 131 attached to the vessel body 140 and a pair of electrode pins 133 mounted on the plug receptacle body 131.
The plug receptacle body 131 includes a plug-receiving recess 132 open in the front. A pair of magnetic material 134 (not magnetized) is provided on left and right outer sides of the plug-receiving recess 132 in the plug receptacle body 131 so as to face the plug-receiving recess 132. The magnetic materials 117 provided on the plug 110 are to abut the magnetic material 134, respectively.
The respective electrode pins 133 are pin members made of metal, and are provided at positions where the contact portions 115 of the respective plate springs 114 provided on the plug 110 make contact.
When the plug 110 is inserted in the plug receptacle 130 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 7, the respective electrode pins 133 are inserted into the respective plate spring receiving cavities 112 of the plug 110. Then, tip ends of the respective electrode pins 133 make contact with the contact portions 115 of the respective plate springs 114, and the respective electrode pins 133 depress the respective plate springs 144 (each of the plate springs is elastically deformed rearward), generating a predetermined contact pressure. Moreover, at this time, the magnetic materials 117 of the plug 110 are attracted to the magnetic material 134 of the plug receptacles 130, respectively, when the front face of the plug 110 abuts the bottom of the plug-receiving recess 132 of the plug receptacle 130.
Accordingly, excessive rotational moment may be exerted on the plug 110 in the left-and-right direction (direction of arrow B in FIG. 7) or up-and-down direction (direction orthogonal to the space in FIG. 7), and an external force at least equal to attractive force between the magnetic materials 117 and the magnetic material 134 may be exerted on the plug 110. For example, this is a case when an article is caught by the power cord 120 connected to the plug 110. In this case, the plug 110 becomes disengaged from the plug receptacle 130, cutting off power distribution. In this manner, mechanical connection of the plug 110 and the plug receptacle 130 in the electrical connector assembly 100 is made using magnetic materials. As a result, the plug 110 may be easily disengaged from the mating plug receptacle 130 by exerting excessive rotational moment on the plug 110.
In addition, an known electrical connector assembly having a known connector 200 can be easily disengaged from the mated counterpart connector is disclosed in JP 2002-252066 A, and shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9.
The electrical connector 200 is a known right-angled coaxial electrical connector, as shown in FIG. 8, and connects a coaxial cable (not illustrated in the drawings) to a mating coaxial connector (not illustrated in the drawings). The electrical connector 200 includes a shell subassembly 210, a collar subassembly 220, a pin contact 230, and a dielectric 240.
The shell subassembly 210 includes a metal back shell 211 connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial cable. A through-hole 212 extending in the front-and-back direction to receive the dielectric 240 is formed in the back shell 211. A metal front shell 213 is attached to the front end of the back shell 211. The front shell 213 is a cylindrical member having multiple flexible cantilever spring fingers 216 extending frontward from a cylindrical base 214, as shown in FIG. 9. Between adjacent spring fingers 216 are slits 215 that open on the front side, allowing the respective spring fingers 216 to easily deflect inward and outward. Ribs 217 protruding inward are positioned near the front ends of the respective spring fingers 216. Each of the ribs 217 are made to engage with an opposite surface of the outer conductor of the mating coaxial connector.
The collar subassembly 220 includes a housing 221 arranged at a position where a part of the front shell 213 and the back shell 211 surrounds. The housing 221 is movable between a neutral position shown in FIG. 8 and back-and-forth positions before and after the neutral position. The housing 221 is made to control displacement of outer sides of the respective spring fingers 216 when in the neutral position. Coil springs 222, which urge the back shell 211 and the housing 221 in respective opposite directions from each other to the front-and-back direction, are provided on the periphery of the back shell 211.
The dielectric 240 is placed within the through-hole 212 of the back shell 211. The pin contact 230 is a metal pin member functioning as a central conductor, and is arranged at the center portion of the dielectric 240. The front end side of the pin contact 230 protrudes inward of the front shell 213.
In order to connect the mating coaxial connector with the electrical connector 200 that is configured as such, a hand is used to make the housing 221 of the collar subassembly 220 resist compressive force of the coil springs 222 so as to move rearward. Then, displacement of the outer sides of the respective spring fingers 216 provided in the front shell 213 is possible. When the mating coaxial connector connects within the front shell 213, the respective spring fingers 216 in the front shell 213 are displaced outward, and the pin contact 230 makes contact with a central contact (not illustrated in the drawings) of the mating coaxial connector. When the hand releases the housing 221 of the collar subassembly 220, the housing 221 is positioned at the natural position, and outward movement of the respective spring fingers 216 is controlled, completing mating thereof.
In order to release the mating of the mating coaxial connector with the electrical connector 200, a hand is used to make the housing 221 of the collar subassembly 220 resist compressive force of the coil springs 222 so as to move rearward. Then, displacement of the outer sides of the respective spring fingers 216 provided in the front shell 213 is possible. In this state, when the mating coaxial connector is pulled out of the front shell 213, the respective spring fingers 216 in the front shell 213 are displaced outward, canceling the contact condition of the central contact of the mating coaxial connector with the pin contact. This releases the mating of the mating coaxial connector with the electrical connector 200.
With such electrical connector 200, easy outward displacement of the respective spring fingers 216 in the front shell 213 is possible when pulling out the mating coaxial connector from the front shell 213. As a result, the mating coaxial connector may be easily removed from the electrical connector 200.
However, the electrical connector assembly 100 shown in FIG. 7 and the electrical connector 200 shown in FIG. 8 have several problems.
Namely, in the case of the electrical connector assembly 100 shown in FIG. 7, the plate springs 114 are elastically deformable in the front-and-back direction in order to bias the contact portions 115. Therefore, relatively large spaces in the front-and-back direction for holding the plate springs 114 are required.
Moreover, since mechanical connection of the plug 110 and the plug receptacle 130 is made using magnetic materials, there are such problems that external magnetic metal is attracted to the magnetic materials, which increases the costs of manufacturing and repair. Particularly, when the electrical connector assembly 100, connected to a DC power cable of a laptop computer or the like, is used, there is chance that the magnetic materials may adversely affect card magnetic data.
Furthermore, in the case of the electrical connector 200 shown in FIG. 8, there is an inconvenience when excessive rotational moment has been exerted on the mating coaxial connector in the left-and-right direction or the up-and-down direction in a connected state of the electrical connector 200 and mating coaxial connector. Namely, since mating length of the electrical connector 200 and mating coaxial connector is long, when the aforementioned rotational moment is exerted on the mating coaxial connector, constructional elements of the electrical connector 200 including the pin contact 230 and constructional elements of the mating coaxial connector may be damaged.